Dortmund Airport, Germany

Dortmund Airport (IATA: DTM, ICAO: EDLW) is a minor international airport located 10 km east of Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It serves the eastern Rhine-Ruhr area, the largest urban agglomeration in Germany, and is mainly used for low-cost and leisure charter flights. In 2020 the airport served 1,220,624 passengers. The nearest major international airport is Düsseldorf Airport approx. 70 km to the southwest. The airport, originally located in the suburb of Brackel, was first served by commercial flights in 1925 by Aero Lloyd, which operated flights to Paris. During World War II the airport was used as a German air base, and was subsequently used by the British Royal Air Force. German commercial air service was restarted in 1955. In 1960, the civil airfield was relocated to Dortmund-Wickede. The old airport was abandoned and occupied by British forces until the 1990s. Over the next decades Düsseldorf Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport were the dominant commercial airports in the Rhine-Ruhr Area. Additionally Hannover Airport also covered some of the air travel needs of this region. Commercial service was restored in 1979 with daily flights to Munich by Reise- und Industrieflug. Nuremberg and Stuttgart followed shortly afterwards. Following German Reunification in 1990, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, and London were added to the flight schedule. Reise- und Industrieflug and Nürnberger Flugdienst merged in 1990 and Eurowings was formed, which is still based in Dortmund. Construction was started in 1998, and completed in 2000 on a new replacement terminal. This multi-level terminal prepared the airport for its resurgence. From late 2000 onwards, Dortmund Airport has experienced a drastic increase in air traffic. Since 2000, several new airlines have commenced service to Dortmund, many with mainline jets. Most of the air traffic today is by low cost airlines operating Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 family series aircraft to warm-weather destinations and business centres. The first mass carrier at Dortmund Airport was Air Berlin, easyJet made Dortmund a hub in 2004, and Germanwings followed in 2007. In October 2014, Air Berlin announced it was leaving Dortmund Airport entirely, cancelling their last remaining summer seasonal route to Palma de Mallorca. As with easyJet in the 2000s, other low-cost carriers started opening routes from Dortmund Airport. Ryanair has progressively added new routes from Dortmund, mostly to destinations around the Mediterranean and the UK. However, Wizz Air has been the most significant contributor to the airport's resurgence. The Hungarian low-cost airline began servicing the airport in the mid 2000s by operating several routes to Eastern Europe, in large parts due to the Ruhr's significant Slavic community.